Hear it here (segment 4 of this week’s show): Living on Earth: Chemicals and Health

Happy listening!

photo courtesy of SumofUs

We’ve known for a long time that there are serious problems in the electronics supply chain of Apple and the other electronics companies.   However, there have been two major developments that point to increased hope for change in the industry right now.

1.       Increased media attention accompanied by recent high-profile workplace accidents and reports from environmental groups in Asia about appalling factory conditions for workers. 

The recent coverage from the New York Times, the piece by Jon Stewart on the Daily Show, and the personal storytelling from Mike Daisey on This American Life put a much more human face on the issue.  All of this is coming to light amidst reports about Apple’s record profits: According to Scott Nova of the Worker Rights Consortium, “Apple’s profits are so high, and its global labor costs so low, that it could triple the wages of its 700,000 manufacturing workers and help them achieve a living wage (just a few dollars an hour in China), and still make $40 billion a year.”

2. Change in leadership: Following the death of Steve Jobs, Apple has a new CEO and this is a potential opportunity for change.

As the richest corporation in the world, Apple has the ability to change the manufacturing sector as much as iTunes changed music delivery. Or, they could do nothing and profit while workers die of exhaustion or preventable explosions.

This Thursday, SumOfUs will be holding a rally in front of Apple’s Annual General Meeting this Thursday at 9am in Cupertino.  If you are in the Bay Area, come out and show your support ! More details on the Apple Rally below:

http://sumofus.org/campaigns/apple-rally/

Thursday, February 23rd at 9-10:30am
Apple Campus, Main Entrance
N De Anza Blvd & Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA

We need to show Apple that this is their opportunity to be a leader in the global electronics supply chain on labor and environmental issues!  Come out and show your support!

• Nanotechnology: Nanotech poses risks to workers, communities and the environment, and also perhaps most alarmingly to consumers who may be ingesting engineered nanoparticles in food. Nanoparticles can have different (often unexpected and potentially harmful) properties than the same materials at larger scales, and they can be more reactive and more mobile in the body. Two studies in the news just this week made the specter of nano-food danger even more chilling: a lab study showed that absorption of nutrients was inhibited when chickens were fed certain nanoparticles that were expected to be non-toxic; three days later, a new study showed that other nanoparticles are already ubiquitous in our food.

•  Endocrine-disrupting chemicals:  Many people have heard about bisphenol-A (BPA), a chemical once widely found in plastics used for baby bottles, sippy cups, teethers, and many other products. BPA can disrupt the body’s natural hormones, potentially causing infertility, cancer, and other health problems. Because of the health controversy, many producers have eliminated BPA from children’s products – but a study last year showed that they may be using similar endocrine-disrupting chemicals in place of BPA. This is a toxic shell game that puts all of our children at risk.

•  Cadmium: For decades we’ve known about the hazards, especially to children, from lead poisoning. Most people know about lead in paint, but when CEH found high levels of lead in dozens of children’s products (and helped create the first-ever federal law banning lead in all products for kids), it came as a surprise to many. Now we have a new toxic metal of concern: cadmium. Two years ago, reports began to surface suggesting that some makers of children’s jewelry were eliminating lead but substituting cadmium. Now, a report this month asked if cadmium is “the new lead,” as a recent study showed children with high levels of the metal are three times more likely to have learning disabilities.

•  GMO animals and cloned food: The first genetically manipulated (GMO) animal for food consumption may soon be sold unlabeled in supermarket stores. The FDA is considering an application for selling GMO salmon, despite widespread consumer opposition and concerns by scientists, wild salmon fishing communities, environmentalists, and health advocates. Meanwhile, news reports repeatedly crop up about the possibility that stores are already unknowingly selling food from cloned animals and their offspring – despite concerns about food safety, animal cruelty, and consumers’ right to know what is in our food.

• Synthetic biology: Sometimes called “extreme genetic engineering” or GMOs “on steroids,” synthetic biologists hope to create artificial life forms in order to produce new products, including pharmaceuticals, biofuels, and many others.  The Lawrence Berkeley Labs recently announced it will open a second campus in Richmond, CA, while downplaying the prominent role that synbio research will have there. Synbio poses unprecedented health threats to workers and the public. As a recent report questioning safety at the new lab noted, the technology could change harmless microbes into deadly pathogens, or make already dangerous ones more infectious, more virulent, and/or resistant to treatment.  Synthetic microorganisms, if released into the environment, could proliferate out of control and cause massive damage and/or threaten public health. Despite the massive risks, there are virtually no regulations specific to protect the public from synthetic biology. As a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist recently told the New York Times, “Nothing currently written into law, treaties or scientific codes of ethical behavior anticipated the synthetic biology revolution.”

I think I’ll go back to watching basketball now (better Linsanity than this insanity!).

(Pictured at right after his role as one of 41 people, including DC Mayor Vincent Gray, who were arrested following their protest calling for DC federal representation.)

Daniel Solomon has been a longtime supporter of CEH and is a tenacious supporter of countless causes, including many in his home city of Washington D.C. The concept of CEH was actually created around Daniel Solomon’s living room table, so we interviewed Daniel to get the scoop on how it came to be and his adventures in civil disobendience.

Q: How did you and CEH’s Executive Director, Michael Green meet?

A: We met in the Conservation and Resource Studies program at UC Berkeley. We were both student organizers active in protesting expansion of US nuclear weapons programs, we had this small affinity group that did all sorts of activism, including getting arrested during non-violent civil disobedience. We protested the link between UC Berkeley and Lawrence National laboratories (one of the only locations in the US where nuclear missiles weapons are made), and in 1983 protested Reagan’s proposed Strategic Defense Initiative.

Q: We heard the concept of CEH was crafted around your living room table—could you tell us the story behind that?

A: My place was on Q street, downtown DC, at the time. Mike told me about this idea to go start an organization in California centered on using Proposition 65 to get chemicals out of the consumer market. It was a group of us sitting around the dining room table—Michael and his mentor from the U.S. EPA, and a handful of other non-profit leaders and activists.

I thought it was a great idea, but we were concerned about Michael’s skills as a manager—he just seemed too nice a guy to be an effective manager. But what’s impressed me about Michael is how he’s grown over the years to become this new kind of “zen” manager—he’s a great leader yet he’s not threatened by others on staff being more knowledgeable than him about certain issues or offering their ideas for the organization.

Q: You’ve seen CEH grow from a one-man org to the major national group it is today. What’s it been like seeing the changes?

I’m really proud of Mike and CEH and what it’s accomplished. I think it’s one of the very best investments I’ve made as a philanthropist.

Q: How did you become interested in Environmental Health?

Well, my background at UC Berkeley in conservation and resources really got me interested in environmental issues and looking at them from a holistic perspective. EH and EJ are issues that need to be addressed from many perspectives. What I appreciate about CEH is that the organization uses a multi-pronged strategy to combat environmental issues—litigation, activism, and community organizing. But the organization is also willing to negotiate and partner with business where it makes sense.

Q: What’s your favorite thing about (or accomplishment of) CEH?

One where chemicals are tested and proven safe before they are released into the environment. A future that implements the precautionary principle to protect all of us.

Q: You’ve also been very active in local DC politics through your organization, DC Vote. What are you focusing on now?

A: Well, I am a resident of Washington DC, and DC residents fulfill all the same responsibilities of an American citizen—we pay full federal taxes, we’ve fought and died in every American war, served on juries, yet we are denied the right to vote for the people who write the laws under which we must live.

That’s why a group of us founded DC Vote in 1998. We focus on grassroots lobbying and advocacy for DC citizen voting rights. We’re fighting for our democratic birthright.

I don’t want to die without ever having voted for a US Senator. And now, as a parent, I think, I don’t want my kids to die without ever having voted for a US Senator.

Honey, like so many parts of our economy, is no longer a local business. Lots of the honey sold in the US comes from Asia, South America, Europe, and elsewhere. When we read some reports last fall that some of this honey is shipped in big metal drums that have been constructed with lead-containing solder, we knew we had to check and see if some of that lead ends up in our honey.

Our research is just beginning, but we wanted to let you know what we’ve found so far. We’ve found lead problems in honey at Wal-Mart, Ralph’s, and Grocery Outlet. Since you and your kids are eating the honey, that lead ends up inside of you. The amount of lead we founds exceed the safety levels set by California’s Proposition 65. We’re starting litigation with those companies and we’re going to get the lead out. No one should have to worry about lead when they’re buying a jar of honey.

In the meantime, here’s our recommendation: Try to buy honey at your farmer’s market. Or buy it from a store that sells local honey. And enjoy that honey and it’s golden goodness.

Just last week, we told you about the exciting news that Senator Dianne Feinstein agreed to co-sponsor the Safe Chemicals Act!

Now is the time to keep the pressure on and encourage other Senators to sign on in support of the Safe Chemicals Act.  The first step?  Make some art!

For the many parents and families that support this bill: now is your chance to get your family more involved!  Our coalition partner Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families is hosting an Art Contest to see our healthy future through children’s imaginative eyes (and art)!

It’s fun, creative, and it’s for a good cause.  We’re hoping that CEH supporters and families across the country will paint, draw, or photograph what they envision as a healthy future for people and the environment.

Parents and youth leaders across the country are key players in the movement for safer chemicals.  They are the powerful messengers that have been telling their Senators why they support the Safe Chemicals Act, a bill that would put common sense limits on toxic chemicals.  You’ve seen our advocacy opportunities, like the Stroller Brigades and Safe Chemicals Act Call-In Days.  They’ve given you a platform to send the message loud and clear: we want Washington D.C. to protect our families, communities and environment from toxic chemicals.

Now you have an opportunity to get your creative juices flowing by doing something collaborative with your family to teach them about the importance of engaging your elected officials.

For the Safer Chemicals Art Contest, we want to see what happens when your family paints, draws, or photographs what a healthy future for people and the environment looks like.

For younger kids, it might be a drawing of a clean lake nearby, or an image their family.  You can even organize a “playdate” with friends to get more people involved!

For older kids, there are endless possibilities: they can create a short film about why eliminating toxics from our bodies and environment is something we should be thinking about, or they can create a toxic chemical avenging superhero.

Safer Chemicals Art Contest Details:

Who: Three age categories: 5 and under, 6-12 and 13-18

When: Art submissions will be collected until February 29^th, 2012

What: Kids of all ages make art describing what a healthy future for our families and environment means to them.

• Artwork will be delivered to your Senator asking them Artwork will be delivered to your Senator asking them to support the Safe Chemicals Act! Need more clarity on the theme, email Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families Deputy Director, Lindsay Dahl for ideas.  We can also help you set up a meeting with your Senator’s office in your state so parents & artists can make a delivery in person.

Where:  We’d love to collect art from as many states as possible.  If you are a parent of a young child, perhaps you want to organize a “playdate” where kids do art together. Be sure to take pictures!

Prize: Winners of the art contest will receive a generous basket of non-toxic art supplies, their art featured on our website and via social media. Art that is 2-D will be printed on canvass to hang and feature in your home! Video winners will be featured on our website!  Interest and want more information?

Email lindsaydahl@saferchemicals.org for contest rules and ideas for how to make art with your friends and family.

Submit Art Here!

We all know that sodas are full of sugar, buy you may be surprised (and grossed out) to find that a chemical called brominated vegetable oil (BVO), a patented flame retardant, has also been added to  approximately 10% of sodas for decades in North America.  No need to worry about your soda catching on fire!

You might think that the health effects of an ingredient that’s used in a common food would be well studied. In the case of BVOs, that’s not so. There are remarkably few published research studies.  But what do those few studies tell us about BVO’s health effects? Reduced fertility, behavioral problems and transfer in breast milk from moms to babies. Enough that I don’t want to be drinking these chemicals!

There have also been a few cases of people needing medical attention after soda binges for skin lesions, memory loss and nerve disorders which are all documented symptoms of overexposure to bromine. BVO’s are even more problematic for children (who have lower body mass) and for teens—groups with the highest soda consumption.

Environmental Health News (EHN) reported that BVOs are found mostly in citrus flavored sodas and beverages to keep the fruit flavoring suspended in the drink; that is why the drink looks “cloudy.” Drinks containing BVOs include:

Singing cards contain batteries and electronic circuit boards that are classified as Universal Waste (U-Waste) in California, meaning it is illegal for them to be disposed of into sanitary landfills.  The tiny button batteries contain lithium that if ingested can lead cause serious health problems like vocal paralysis, hearing loss and nasal deformity. The circuit boards contain metals that are toxic to aquatic animals.

Consumers and parents should not have to worry about taking the toxic insides out of their cards so they don’t poison their children or the environment.

Hallmark should not be selling cards with embedded e-waste without regard for how those products can be disposed.

Watch our video for more details:

Why add to the already massive mounds of e-waste that our country produces by adding silly batteries and circuit boards that will really only be used once or twice before being tossed?

Hallmark has been a leader in the greeting card industry for more than a century.  It’s about time they become the leader in environmentally responsible cards.

Cards should bring joy and love into our homes—not toxic hazards.  Hallmark must take responsibility and stop producing their e-waste generating cards!

Take Action. Tell Hallmark to Eliminate E-Waste Cards Now

Thanks to all of you who participated in our advocacy efforts—whether you signed a letter, participated in a stroller brigade, or called her office directly. Your support kept the pressure on and amplified the voices of California families who want safer chemicals now!

This great news is the momentum we need to keep the pressure on and encourage other Senators to sign on in support of the Safe Chemicals Act.

Want to get your family more involved? Make some art! As part of the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families Coalition, we’re spreading the word about the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families Art Contest. Get ready to get creative and join families across the country to paint, draw or photograph what you envision as a healthy future for people and the environment.

Get more details on the Safer Chemicals Art Contest here.

So it was good news in 2005 when New York City proposed green purchasing rules, including requiring the Mayor’s office to formulate rules “to reduce the city’s purchase or lease of materials whose combustion may lead to the formation of dioxin or dioxin-like compounds.”

What’s disappointing is that seven years later, and more than four years past the implementation deadline, the Mayor’s office has yet to put this important, health protective rule into effect.

In testimony last week to a New York City Council Committee, CEH Eastern States Director Ansje Miller highlighted one way the city should implement the purchasing rule: phasing out polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastics in electronics and other PVC containing products. PVC is a major source of chlorinated dioxin, and when outdated electronics are discarded (and often burned), highly toxic dioxins are released, posing serious health and environmental threats.

Policies eliminating PVC in electronics and other products send a strong message to manufacturers. Leading businesses such as Wal-Mart, Target, HP, Apple and others have policies to reduce or phase out the purchase of PVC. Health care giants Kaiser Permanente, Catholic Healthcare West, and others invest billions in their IT systems, and have adopted the strongest environmental standards in the nation for electronics purchasing and management. Kaiser has specific criteria calling for avoiding PVC products, and recently announced it is converting its medical equipment, including IV-bags and tubing, to PVC-free products.

New York City has a chance to add its purchasing power to this movement for safer products. It’s time to stop stalling and implement the green purchasing law.